1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to techniques for allowing the loading of multimedia application instructions and data to a digital signal processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multimedia application programs are becoming increasingly important in modern computing. Many experts believe that the coordinated operation of multimedia end devices, such as telephones, televisions, audio CD players, and CD ROMs represents a substantial new market for data processing industries. In fact, some believe that many households remain without personal computing equipment due to the fact that heretofore data processing systems have failed to adequately control the coordinated and real-time operation of multimedia end devices. One continuing problem with prior art data processing systems is that the multimedia application software remains in a closed architecture which is not suitable for interfacing with multimedia applications written by end users. Another considerable problem with the prior art multimedia data processing systems is that it is often fairly difficult for the multimedia data processing systems to anticipate the user-desired combinations of operation of multimedia tasks. This problem will become more acute as demand increases for multimedia data processing systems, particularly because of the increased expectations of users regarding the simultaneous operation of multimedia end devices. For example, end users may want to coordinate and combine the operation of a variety of multimedia end devices which have heretofore not been combined. Prior art multimedia data processing systems allow for some simultaneous and/or coordinated operation of multimedia tasks by providing a plurality of "versions" of the tasks each of which allows for a limited coordinated operation of two or more multimedia end devices and/or multimedia tasks. For example, a multimedia application may allow for some limited use of a multimedia telephone function while a multimedia audio task is being performed. Typically, in the prior art multimedia data processing systems, the user is only allowed to concurrently execute multimedia tasks which are preconfigured for concurrent execution. More specifically, special versions of the multimedia routines are called for execution by the digital signal processor which allow for the particular combination of tasks. All other combinations which have not been anticipated by, and accommodated for, the software vendor will remain outside the capabilities of the multimedia end user. Typically, when a user attempts to "force" the combined and/or simultaneous operation of multimedia tasks or multimedia end devices, the digital signal processor must stop all processing, and reload special task functions which allow for concurrent or simultaneous processing. Many combinations of multimedia functions and end device operations are not allowed with existing prior art multimedia data processing systems. This rigidity and user-unfriendliness in prior art multimedia data processing systems presents one very serious impediment to the expansion of multimedia data processing markets.